Steve Salazar, The Cantina Flys, Monologue

This monologue was conducted ad hoc, after the Slunt/Cantina Flys/Gypsy
Rose show. Steve was talking to me, and I realized after a few moments
that he had something significant to say, so I started writing it down.
I call it a monologue because Steve was not really responding to my prompting;
he was just saying what he was feeling. This does include some corrections that
Steve sent to me.

4/10/05
...Everywhere we play, we say we're an
El Paso band, proud to be from El Paso, even though, we have to leave to
get the respect, for others to recognize us, because right now we're
kings in Arizona, and in Dallas. They asked us to headline the
Texas Quadruple Bypass Music Festival during SXSW
next year in Austin, and we blew doors in the Cat Club, next door to
the Whiskey a Go Go (in Hollywood, CA). We played with five LA bands,
and we blew them all away, by far! But, we don't deny we're from El Paso.

Just like (Steve Buscemi says) in the movie, Desperado:
"I was visiting a bar there, not unlike this one. They serve beer, not quite as
good as this, but close...
and
in walks the biggest Mexican I have ever seen. Big as shit, Just walks right
in like he owns the place,
and nobody knew quite what to make of him or quite what to think..."
EPMS note: The Cantina Flys play this audio clip as an intro at the start
of their show.

We take music influences from Deep Purple, and showmanship from Kiss and
Motley Crue, and put on a show. People
don't see a record, they want to see a show.

We're a favorite stepchild of Arizona, Austin, New Mexico and Dallas.
We come to El Paso, they take us for granted.
Once again, you have to leave to gain respect. We do not ever, ever
resent that we're from El Paso. That's our schtick. We're from El Paso,
a Chicano band, trying to make it in other states.

The only reason we don't get the recognition is, labels haven't seen our show.
We've got distribution deals for our next CD from Cleopatra
Records (LA), 4/4 records (Austin), and are in negotiations with
Liquor and Poker Music (NY), which is part of the Century Media Family.
They are interested in us right now,
and have seen us live.

People don't want to just see music, they want to see a show. Our
whole schtick is, our music goes along with our show. We sold all
20 CDs tonight. We did a lot better than Slunt as far as merchandise.
We're going up and taking El Paso with us. We're taking it to the next
level, taking El Paso to the next level. We are making El Paso proud of
us. After Phoenix, LA, Las Vegas, we show them rock'n'roll is still
alive in Texas.. We've done the best gigs ever in Dallas, Austin, and
El Paso. Rock'n'roll style is still alive in the Lone Star state.